STATUS OF FOREIGN TRADE STATISTICS STATUS OF FOREIGN TRADE STATISTICS Country Presentation Statistics – Tanzania

Introduction NBS was officially launched as an Executive Agency on 26th March The OCGS is the only Central Statistical Office in Zanzibar, all statistical matters are undertaken by this office empowered by the statistical Act No. 9 of 1999 of Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar.

Why External Trade Statistics? National and regional policy formulation and planning depends on reliable and timely data of external trade. External Trade Statistics is one of the components of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) External trade provides an input to the compilation of Balance of Payment statistics, which measure the country’s level of international trade and investment position.

Merchandising and Trade System Kyoto Convention on simplification and harmonization of Customs procedures. The International merchandise trade statistics are produced by the General Trade System as per recommendations of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD).

COVERAGE The CED uses exclusively customs declaration forms or single bills of entry and is able to compile consistent series from 1995 onwards. The statistics cover both the Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. The free port located in Zanzibar is considered part of Tanzania.

Valuation Principles For the purpose of comparability of international merchandise trade statistics, the statistical value is determined according to the recommendations of the WTO and UNSD. The statistical value of imported goods is determined by CIF-type and exported goods is determined by FOB-type. Values expressed in foreign currencies are converted to Tanzanian shillings using the average weekly rate of the previous week submitted by BoT.

Quantity Measurements Quantity units refer to physical characteristics of goods. In many cases they do provide a more reliable indicator on international movement of goods. Units used in the report are those recommended by the World Customs Organization in 1995 to facilitate the collection, comparison and analysis of international statistics based on the Harmonized System.

CLASSIFICATIONS USED Nomenclature of commodities are classified under the International Convention on Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonised systems, or HS) approved by the World Customs Organisation (WCO). Since January 2004, Tanzania is using HS version 2002 which is applied by all EAC partner states.

DATA SOURCES The key source of international merchandise trade statistics in Tanzania is the Declaration or Single Bill of Entry (SBE) administered by the Customs and Excise Department (CED) to clear cross border goods.

Data Transmission Following the introduction of the Automated System for Customs data (ASYCUDA) in the Dar Es Salaam Long room, the Dar Es Salaam International Airport and Zanzibar, the data from these stations are transferred electronically to the CED trade and revenue statistics section.

THE MAIN OUTPUTS The output are mainly:- Balance of trade Exports, re - exports and imports by value and volume (quantity) Other outputs as per clients requests.

DISSEMINATION METHODS The present strategy is to put on the recently started NBS website, quarterly external merchandise trade statistics release. External merchandise trade statistics are included in the economic survey reports produced by the Ministry of Planning, Economy and Empowerment, which is published yearly. Also for the case of Zanzibar, the Statistical Abstract is used

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